Solidarity 566, 7 October 2020

The threat from Trump

• See here for other articles debating the US election, Trump, etc . Immediately after the 9/11 attackers had levelled the World Trade Center, Donald Trump rang a radio station to inform New Yorkers that now he, Donald J Trump, owned the tallest building in the city. In a saner political world, that public response to 9/11 would ever after have made the man who had thus exposed his inner self unelectable to any position in the USA. Trump, who had inherited vast wealth, was host of a reality TV show in which he blustered and bullied contestants and visibly relished the power to say to them:...

A socialist vote for Biden

• See here for other articles debating the US election, Trump, etc . Trump’s defeat in the election is, as of now, likely. It is by no means certain. A lot can happen in the coming weeks. It is of fundamental importance to the US working class that he does not win. The US left is divided. Some see it as overriding principle not to back Biden — they tend to favour a vote for the Green Party presidential candidate, Howie Hawkins, who is a socialist. Others work within the very big tent around the Democratic Party for Biden’s election. But if Biden does not win, Trump will win. If by some freak...

Not just hope, action

• See here for other articles debating the US election, Trump, etc . The author of the article “The case for backing Hawkins” (Solidarity 565) begins thus: “Anyone committed to basic human decency, let alone socialism, should hope that Donald Trump loses the American presidential election in November. Given the nature of the US’s electoral system, this means hoping that Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, wins.” The conclusion would seem to be obvious: vote Biden. But no: despite “hoping” for a Biden victory, we should not do anything to actually bring it about and — in fact — advocate a course...

What Hawkins can build

• See here for other articles debating the US election, Trump, etc . In the light of the Sanders campaign and a small resurgence of leftish pressure from Democrats, having a straightforward position of never voting for or to even contemplate seeking the Democratic nomination would be counterproductive. But Sanders is not building anything out of this presidential election. And at almost 80 years old, he is, unfortunately, unlikely to be the figurehead of a new movement for any length of time. Since Biden won the nomination, Sanders, whether through being told to shut up or feeling burned, has...

Uniformed police at Pride?

The Black Lives Matter movement has reignited the demand for an end to Police racism and racism across society, and given many a necessary reminder of the need to listen and learn from BAME people and to offer our solidarity. LGBT +people are now also asking once again: should uniformed police officers be invited to Pride marches? Pride began as a protest to remember the Stonewall Riots which took place in the US in 1969 when LGBT+ people at a bar called the Stonewall Inn had had enough of being bullied and harassed by homophobic police. Activists in the United Kingdom set up their own Pride...

Diary of an engineer: Shock and learning

It’s autumn, and we need our thick coats again. Since the Outage [the annual shutdown for major repairs] something has changed among the apprentices. We are more confident, and there’s less work to do, so we are competing, suddenly, for jobs. In downtime, I do college work, then discover engineers have gone to a job without telling me — “Don’t worry about it, do your apprentice work” — I forget basic things, I screw up testing, I fake confidence and dread embarrassment. K asks us to look at an electric heater in one of the cabins and I go alone, isolate it, struggle to get the cover off...

Kino Eye: China's coal mines

October 1 was the anniversary of the founding of the “People’s Republic” of China. Regular readers of the Morning Star should turn away now. Blind Shaft (2003, director Li Yang), a film set in a coal mining region of China, depicts the appalling conditions underground and corruption among officials. In 2003 there were 6,700 fatalities (official figures) in Chinese mines. Two con-men persuade a young lad to join them in the mine, posing as their nephew. After a few weeks they kill him while underground and the mine manager, afraid of an investigation, pays them a large bribe. The next time they...

Resist Sodexo job cuts

Sodexo, the multibillion pound, multinational outsourcing giant, plans to cut 30 jobs on its TfL catering contract.

It has been cooking up the cuts (pun intended) since late last year, when it won an extension to its contract. Sodexo bosses say TfL re-tendered the contract on the explicit basis of...

Concessions won in DWP (John Moloney's column)

Bosses in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have offered a number of concessions in our ongoing dispute about Job Centre opening hours and arrangements. The union’s Group Executive Committee for the DWP meets on Monday 5 October to consider these concessions and decide the next steps. If the GEC decides the offer isn’t adequate, the dispute will continue and likely move to a formal ballot for industrial action. We need a comprehensive settlement that covers the whole department, on an indefinite basis. There’s been some suggestion that decisions around opening times and arrangements...

RMT CFDU group launches

A group of activists in the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport workers (RMT) has launched a “Campaign for a Fighting, Democratic Union” (CFDU), which “fights for rank-and-file democracy and militant industrial strategies.” The CFDU name has been used by a number of previous similar initiatives in the union. This latest initiative has been launched in response to a burgeoning democratic crisis inside the union, which has seen General Secretary Mick Cash use official union communication channels to attack the lay National Executive Committee, and then refuse to carry out his...

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